(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar was a fan of the man Jimmy Carter defeated in his lone presidential victory, Gerald Ford, and wasn’t too impressed with the old peanut farmer.

“I think the real reservation (was that Carter had) come from outside (and) had never experienced a certain level of government and then to be head of it,” Edgar said Sunday. “You need some experience before you get there, and I think that hurt President Carter.”

Wait – being governor of Georgia doesn’t count?

“It’s better than coming from being a developer in New York and having things go bankrupt,” Edgar quipped. “But it hurt him that he had not had any federal government experience.”

While praising Carter’s post-presidential life, Edgar said he did not merit a second term, adding, though, you can’t make much impact as a one-term president.

Edgar was in the Illinois General Assembly during Carter’s 1978 address to lawmakers in Springfield, as was Bill Marovitz, then a Democratic state representative from Chicago.

Marovitz said Carter was the right man for 1976 and the wrong man for 1980. “Jimmy Carter came after an era that was pretty ugly, pretty dirty, pretty messed up,” he said, referring to the Watergate years and their aftermath, “and people were looking for an honest, clean leader. And, of course, (Ronald) Reagan came on and had more charisma than almost any president.”

Carter, in the 1978 visit to the state Capitol, reportedly threw away a prepared speech in favor of a question-and-answer with lawmakers. “He was lookin’ right atcha,” said Marovitz, “and I think he felt comfortable dealing with the legislators – the people in the room.”

Marovitz said he met Carter through friend Lou Lerner, a Chicago newspaper publisher who hosted Carter in Chicago, when he was first exploring a presidential bid.

The then-governor of Georgia, Marovitz said, slept on Lerner’s couch.